This morning Ingrid and I were enjoying a leisurely Sunday morning, drinking coffee, reading the paper and complaining about politicians that clearly are not as smart as we are.
Then our phones pinged . . . the legendary Brookline (Massachusetts) Bird Club was in Maine . . . and had spotted a Loggerhead Shrike in Kennebunk.
Shrikes are sometimes referred to a “Butcher Birds” due to their propensity to impale their prey on thorns or barbed wire.
During the long, cold Maine winters Ingrid and I will occasionally see Northern Shrikes perched on small trees scanning for their next meal (small song birds). Once the weather warms in the spring . . . Northern Shrikes retreat back into Canada.
Their southern cousin, the Loggerhead Shrike is a common bird across the American south but is rarely seen north of Virginia. A Loggerhead hasn’t been reported in Maine since 1990, and prior to that it was a series of sightings (6) in the 1970s.
So when birders from the Brookline Bird Club reported a Loggerhead, we were moving fast . . . as it was a 90 minute drive, and the bird could disappear at any moment.
We arrived at Kennebunk Plains, a grassland preserve . . . and not surprisingly the parking lot was filled with birder cars (i.e. Subarus). Sadly, the Loggerhead had just flown . . . and the group spread out along the road scanning the small trees and shrubs for the bird. After an agonizing 20 minutes, a young woman named Brit found the Shrike, and we watched it from a distance for about 45 minutes.
